Lu Yun had no idea what kind of astonishing chain reaction he’d set off by turning into a chaos dragon to intimidate a connate demon god. All he’d wanted was to ensure that he came away with his treasure. But that was a story for the distant future.

Currently, he was in the world of immortals upon returning through hell.

After Xing Chen refined the netherworld, he’d left a door in the Dao Academy that led directly into hell. Lu Yun could immediately disengage from danger if he ever found himself in a tight spot.

He didn’t return to Earth or visit Mount Buzhou. The fissure in the depths of Earth’s space was no longer important. Creatures from the chaos wouldn’t be able to enter through it, even if it was pierced through. All of the preparations they’d laid there were meant for realm monsters. Now that he’d carefully sifted through everything, Lu Yun realized that they’d never run the risk of anything else coming through that particular gap.

The fake Fuxi had purposefully maintained the fissure and painted a false picture of its dangers in order to exhaust the strength of the human sacred land. His eyes were set on Mount Vastspace and the Timelight Tower. He’d also broken the Great Formation of the Nineheavens Gates and moved the one around the ancestor planet to surreptitiously destroy it elsewhere.

Lu Yun wasn’t worried about the Deaf Prince, Houtu, and the others; he’d given them a comprehensive summary a while ago. As premier experts of the world, they would be able to do whatever was necessary to restrain the imposter.

Mount Vastspace and the Timelight Tower weren’t meant to guard the fissure, but to protect the ancestor planet! This was the plan that the real Fuxi had left behind.

As for who the imposter was… Fuxi didn’t know either. Perhaps he was a unique chaos creature, or perhaps he was a survivor of a destroyed world like Hongjun and Carmines Eternal and Arbiter. Not every survivor gladly helped other new worlds fight off the chaos when their own had been destroyed. They, too, nursed their own thoughts and motivations.

……

The Ascension Pool rested in hell. According to the original plan, Lu Yun had only needed to refine the chaos dao fruit, absorb the curse into his body, then easily cleanse it with hellfire. Given the direction of his actions, he would now have to expend greater effort to break the curse against great emperors.

Sitting cross-legged beneath the Karmic Tree, Lu Yun hefted the core essence of the Ascension Pool with his hands. Hellfire billowed forth beside him to flood into the treasure. With the flames of hell as the base, he projected Pangu and God charging into the treasure, respectively wielding Worldcarver and Heavenfall, to attack that dreadful existence.

He’d identified the heart of the curse as a terrifying concoction of malice and evil. It was an enormously strong living being, and its spite and animosity weren’t the result of resentment or a desire for vengeance. It was just pure, unadulterated evil. Since it hadn’t managed to find happiness or contentment, it wanted all of life to be the same and burn as its funeral pyre.

“What the hell is this to think these kinds of thoughts?? It’s cutting off its nose to spite its face!”

Lu Yun knew that this curse originated from the fallen great emperors, but their resentment had only been a conduit. This curse had already existed in the world to begin with, and was brought into full manifestation after the massacre of the great emperors. It was something very similar to the akasha ghosts.

“Emperors Fall not only forged a bloody immortal dao, but was also exploited by many other parties, such as the akasha ghost and this horrific curse.”

A legion of Lu Yun’s projections charged into the Ascension Pool, but were all destroyed the moment they rushed in. Thankfully, this was hell. The six paths of his nascent spirit hovered overhead, feeding him endless energy to create his projections. In addition, the kingdom of hell also imbued him with sufficient strength so he wouldn’t be injured in the appalling backlash.

……

“AHHHHHH!!”

“Kill! Kill! KILL!!” Bloodcurdling shrieks suddenly rang throughout hell.

The four evil coffins guarding the four corners shook furiously in response, and the four swords resting within shot out. Shifting into four sword gates, they stood erect at the abyss of the netherworld.

Stark-white arms stretched out of the void, attempting to smash the almost intangible prison around them. Hell trembled and quaked from the blows.

Dusk Province.

The sword formation protecting the land materialized in the skies, flooding the Dao Academy with tyrannical strength and sending it through the door that led to the netherworld. A tidal wave of energy streamed through to reinforce the four sword gates.

Ge Long took to the air and stared into the abyss. His face darkened as two sharp beams of light exploded from his eyes.

“Are they trying to break free?” murmured the blood demon as he joined Ge Long. He’d been probing the depths of this unknown since returning from the great wilderness, even to the point of ignoring some of the plans he’d left behind in the world of immortals. All he wanted to do was to find what he’d once lost here.

“They really are the source of the curse.” Instead of answering, Ge Long’s forehead drew tightly together and rays of keen sword energy exploded from his figure.

Four more Ge Longs walked out of the sword gates, each of them highly alert and wearing flamboyant red robes. All of them wielding their own swords, enormous killing intent raged from all five.

Furious howls emitting from the void heightened in intensity as numerous faces appeared in the air. These were very different from the entities in white that Lu Yun had fought last time.

The white entities had been traitors from the human dao era, imprisoned for their acts of treason. The faces appearing now, however, were from the first batch of prisoners in these dungeons—the one that’d once sat beneath the Sea of Hellfire in the netherdark.

The creators of the curse were those prisoners that were still confined here. They threw themselves in a maddened dash for freedom upon discovering that Lu Yun was attempting to dispel their curse. They wouldn’t allow the master of hell to succeed, but Ge Long’s four gates stood in their way and bore the brunt of their impact head-on.

Other traitors of the human dao and the entities of white were the first casualties in the line of the prisoners’ crazed charge.

Carmines Eternal and Arbiter swiftly deployed their strength when they rushed to the scene, joining their efforts with Ge Long to quell the insurrection. No one knew where these prisoners came from, why they were kept here, and who’d brought them here. In the era of human dao, various leaders of the human race had followed the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak on more than one excursion into the void beneath the Sea of Hellfire, to learn more about its inhabitants. Their only conclusion was that this punishment was well deserved.

Those guilty of the most heinous crimes would only be kept here, never to see the light of day ever again, if they couldn’t be executed. Over time, this locale also became home to the human race’s most vile criminals.

But currently, the violent entities inside were almost in a complete, berserk rage. If it wasn’t for Ge Long’s four sword gates and help from the Carmine sisters, the prisoners might very well have won their bid for freedom.